About the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Duke Institute for Brain Sciences was created in 2007 as a cross-school, campus-wide, interdisciplinary Institute with a commitment to building an interactive community of brain science research and scholarship. DIBS encourages innovation and collaborations that transcend the boundaries of traditional disciplines, bringing together a diverse community of academics from the biomedical sciences, social sciences, physical sciences, humanities, law, business, public policy, mathematics, computer science and engineering.

Our Mission:

to advance interdisciplinary research and education that transforms our understanding of brain function and translates into innovative solutions for health and society

Our Vision:

an interactive community of scholars—faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows and staff—who pool their talents to achieve a new level of excellence in the brain sciences

Our Goals:

Promoting innovative approaches to problems of nervous system function that lie at the boundaries of traditional disciplines.

Creating an exceptional environment for learning about the brain and establish Duke as the premier institution for education and training in the brain sciences.

Building a strong local brain science community by providing activities that foster communication and collaboration among faculty, postdoctoral fellows, students and staff.

Informing the public about current research in the brain sciences at Duke and the potential impact of this research on health and society.

Our Initiatives:

To meet our goals, DIBS is engaged in a number of initiatives that are designed to stimulate collaborative interdisciplinary research, recruit new faculty, attract external research support, foster communication among faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows and staff, enrich undergraduate neuroscience education, and convey the broad significance of Duke’s accomplishments in the brain sciences to the general public.

Our Strategy:

One of the challenges for the development of DIBS research program is to insure an appropriate thematic balance—one that recognizes the need to focus resources on key interdisciplinary areas, to be broad enough to engage the full spectrum of the brain sciences that exist at Duke, and to be flexible enough to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise. To meet these objectives, DIBS faculty affiliate with specific research themes, each focused on a different interdisciplinary topic and supported through a number of distinct DIBS programmatic initiatives.